The Nicodemus cyclone. [volume] (Nicodemus, Graham County, Kan.) 1887-1888, 1887-12-30
THE NATIVITY'S LESSONS.
THE REV. Or. TALMAGE ON TIE
BIRTH OF CHRIST.

"AA~ w the f1eIQS-What tn
CHRISTMAS Time Should Teach to Mankind
Special to the Kansas city Times.
BROOKLYN, n. Y. Dec. 25.-Rev. T. Dewitt
talmage, D. D., took as the subject of hs ser
mon this morning, ''The Barn and Its SIR
rodndlngs'" His text was taken from Luke
~ 10, THE shepherds said one to another. le
US now go even unto Bethlehem and see tbi,
thing which is come to pass" Dr. Talmacs
said:
One thousand years Of the worlds existence
\ rolled painfully and YEARLY along and M
christ. Two thousand years and no Christ.
1nree thousand years and no Christ. Four
thousand years and no Christ. Give us a
Chrlst" had cried Assyrian and Persian and
Chaidean and Egyptian civilizations. bnt The
lips OF the earth and the lips of the sky made
no answer The world had already been
"!nueht OF genius. Among poets had appear
Gu Homer and Thespis and Aristophanes and
oophocIes and Euripides and Hschylus, vet no
/ christ to be the most poetic figure of the GEN.
turles Among historians had appeared
Herodotus and Xenophon and Thucydfdes.
put no Christ from whom all history WIS to
uate backward and forward-B. C. and A. d.
among COnquerOrs CamiIlus and Nanlins
and ReRuIus and Xantippus and Hannih@Ion6
nJlpla and Pompey and Caesar, yet no Christ
VINO was to be c0nqueror of earth and
heaven. 1'
:, But the slow century and the slow year and
tnc $40" month and the slow hour al last
arrived The world had had mathis or CON
ceftS I'D The morning and Vespers or concerts
Al Tue evening, but now it is to have a con-
cert at midnight. The black window shutters
OF December night were thrown Omen and
some OF the best singers Of a world where they
Us az sing STOOD there and putting back the
Wapery OF cloud Chanted a peace anthem
untll all the echoes of hill and valley applaud
co and encored the halleluiah chorus
THE MOTHER OF CHRIST
~ AT last the world has Christ, and Just the
Christ it needs Come, let us 20 into that
christmas scene as though we had never be-
lore Worshipcd at the Manager Here ia a
Madonna worth looking at. | wonder not
"a that Inc most frequent name in all lands and
IN all CHRISTIAN centuries is Mary. And there
are Marys in palaces and Marys in cabins:
an9 though German, and French, and Italian,
anu spanish ana English pronounce it differ
emily, they are all namcsakcs of the one
Whom we ind on bed of straw with her pale
lace against the soft cheek of Christ in tho
night OF the nativity. All the great painters
nave tried on canvas to present Mary and her |
child and the incidents of that most f.n,o,1s
D iGht in the worlds history. Raphael in
Inree different masterpieces celebrated Them |
Ilntoret and Guirlandio surpassed thpmseIvns |
in the Alteration OF the Magj,1 Corre%io |
needed to do nothing more than his "Mad0n- |
na" to become immortal. The Madonna of
the Lily" by Leonardo da Vinci, will kindIe |
,ne admiration Of all ages. MurilIo never
won greater triumph by his pencil than in his
presentation Of the "Holy Family" But all
he galleries Of the Dresden are forootten
"nen think Of the small room of that gallery
containing the Sistine Madonna" Yet ali
u tnem were copies OF St Matthew's Madon-
!" ana AZ Luke,s Madonna, the inspired Madon-
Ia OF the Old Book which we had put into orr
lands when were infants and that we hope to
ave under our heads when we die
SURROUNDED BY BRUTEe.
behod, IN the trst place, that on the first
llght OF Christ's life God honored the brute
featlon. You can not get into that Betble-
em barn without going past the cameIs the
nules, the dogs, the oxen. Tie brutes of that
table heard the first cry of the infant Lord
ome OF the old painters represent the oxen
No camels kneeling that night before the
ew born babe. And well might thew kneej
lave you ever thought that Christ came
mong other things TO alleviate the sufferinps
| the brute creation! Was it not appropriate
nat he should during the first few DAYS and
lights OF His life on earth be surrounded nv
ne dumb beasts whose moan aud Dlaint and
eHOWlng nave Tor ages been PRAYER to God
Or the arresting of their fortunes and the
ghtlng OF their wrongs 1t did not merely
happen so" that the unintelgent creatures
God should have been that night IN close
eighborhood. Not kennel in all the centn-
es, not BIRDS nest, not q WORKOUT horse
tOWpath, not herd freezing in the poorly
ulIt cow-pen, not a freight car in summer
me bringing the beevcS to market without
ater through thousand miles of agony. not
surgeons room witnessing the struggles of
* or rabbit or pigeon or dog i'm the horrors
vivlsec;ion, but has an interest in the fact {
lat Christ was born i'm a stable surrounded /
aT1lhn hot ,fvl,t 81
fayer lie heard in their pitful moan He will
n6wer IN the punishment OF those who NAL /
eat the dumb brutes. |
DUMB ANIMALS HERE FIRST
lney surely have as much right in this
orld as we have. In the first chapter of Gen 5
is you may see that they were placed on the 6
nth before man was, the fish and fowl '
Gated the fifth day and the Quadruped the I
ornlng OF lhe sixth dav and man not until t
lie afternoon Of that day. The whale. the q
lgle, the lion and all the lesser creatures of t
er kind were predecessors of the human Q
rllly They have the world by right of DOS S
sion. They have also paid rent for the c
aces they occupied. What an army of de- Y
nse all over the land are the faithful watch /
'gs- And who can tell what the world owes c
horse, and camel and OK for transportation? d
nd robin aud lark have. by The caniatas with @
hich they have filed orchard and forest. more O
an paid Tor the few grains they have picked C
} Tor their sustenance. When YOU abuse b
y creature If God YOU str Ike its Creator and II
III insult the Christ who though He might I
I'VE been welcomed into life BY princess, and {
ken his first infantile slumber amid Tyrian v
ush and canoped touches and rfpplinr e
aters from royal aqueGucts. dripping into b
sins Of ivory and pearl, chose to be born on 9
c level with n COW horn. or a cancels boof i
dogs n0stril, that He might be alleyia. a
O Of brutal suffering as well as the Redeem o
Of man. Y
MERCY FOR All GRE Tr-prs \
standing then as / imagine now do. inthat d
thIehem night with an infant Christ on the il
c side and the speeches. creatures of God
the other, | cry, Look out how YOU strike
c roWe into that horses side Take of that o.
rbed blt from that bleeding mouth. Remove L.
AT saddle from that raw back Shoot moi T.
tun that bird that is too small for food r
rget not 10 put water into the cage of that ! =,
NARY. throw out some crumbs TO those n
ds caught too far north in tile winters in ri
mency; Arrest that man who is making "
~ one morse draw load heavy enough for q,
ec- kuSh IN upOn that scene where bows / #,
: loftOrDg cat or trauShyinr butterfly tr
q Srasshopper. Drive not of that old robin. l.
her nest IS a mothers cradle and under II
wing there may be three or four urina o.
mas " the sky in training. And in YOUR OF
miles and I'D your schools teach the coming "
ncfatIOn more mercy than tue present gen I m
Itlon has ever shown. and in this marvellous n,
Die picture of the IL svf+v yhifa WIN -nfrr i,